Vanishing Act
by MissJenn
Summary: It’s been one year since Chelsea’s arrived on the island, and all is well…except for the fact that the villagers have begun to disappear. No one knows where they are, or who's taken them, but one thing’s for certain: only Chelsea can hope to save them.
1. Prologue

_Hello, Bonjour, Hola, Salutations - and all those other greetings - and welcome to the prologue of my new, epic, mystery-esque Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands story! Now, don't be scared away by the incredibly short and probably not very well written prologue - the next chapters are definitely going to be longer and more action-packed, huzzah! I mainly just wanted to get the ball rolling and see what you readers think of the story concept. So, give it a good read, drink in all its juicy content, and review with what you think of the idea. Get it? Got it? Good._

_Enjoy~ _

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**Prologue**

The memories still haunted her dreams.

Granted, they rarely showed up nowadays, yet they showed up nonetheless. The screams, the devastated faces, the tears - she could see them all as vivid as if they were memories from the previous morning. They were so vivid and horrible that when the memories came, she found herself waking up in a cold sweat. They dreams would appear all of a sudden, filling her mind with the horrible pictures she is just _oh so_ fond of. Actually, these couldn't even be called dreams – they were all nightmares. They would happen, what, one, two times a month? That was at least better than having the nightmares every other night like before. Still, she could not help finding herself waking up with a jolt, unable to sleep for the rest of the night.

It was when the dreams came that Chelsea liked to get out. Out of the house, out of town, it didn't matter – she just had to get out. She would walk across the bridge from her ranch and into town, thinking to herself that it would be at least another hour until the residents of the Sunshine Islands would start to stir. After a quick boat ride to Meadow Island with Kirk – did that guy ever sleep? – she would walk to the very edge of the small, round island and seat herself down on the edge of the cliff. As the wind would gently blow her hair away from her face, she would look out unto the horizon and wait for the sun to make an appearance. It was there, as her deep blue eyes stared at the equally deep blue ocean, Chelsea would reminisce about her most recent, if not most mysterious, adventure. She could easily recall the day it began – Spring 1st. It all started on that dreadful Spring 1st.

That was the day the villagers began to disappear.


	2. And So It Begins

**And So It Begins**

Spring 1st.

It was New Years Day – but more importantly, it was Chelsea's first New Year's Day on the island. She didn't move in until a little after Spring began last year, so she had missed last year's New Year's festival. So, naturally, since she missed the festival last year, she was quite excited to go this year – especially if the rumors of the free rice candy were true.

The day started out as per usual. Chelsea was up at the crack of dawn, fed and ready to go do some work. After patting her little brown dog on the head and telling him he was such cutie-pie, she made her way out the door and towards the barn. Because it was the first of Spring, Chelsea did not have any crops, an observation to which she made a mental note to pester Chen about seeds. She entered the barn and quickly took care of her cow and sheep, then did the same for her chickens. Before she knew it, she was finished with her daily chores and off towards Verdure Island, hands in her pocket and a bounce in her step.

The first thing she took notice of was that there was barely a soul to be seen. Of course, they had already made their way to Meadow Island. There were only a few stragglers left behind, one of them being the ever-so-elusive Vaughn. Quite determined to get the guy to like her, Chelsea waved a hand in hopes of being noticed.

"Morning, Vaughn!" Chelsea shouted in her most chipper voice.

Vaughn, the complete opposite of chipper, stopped his walking and let out a long sigh. He slowly turned his head towards the rancher and gave the tiniest – _tiniest_ – of half-smiles, then picked up his pace once more, but this time doubling in speed, no doubt hoping to get away from the overly-excited girl.

Rolling her eyes at the cowboy's lack of enthusiasm, Chelsea turned her attention towards the next person she saw: the pink-haired, tom-boy Natalie. Chelsea had become good friends with Natalie, so she did not have to worry about being snubbed when she enthusiastically waved her hand and bid the girl with the oddly colored hair a good morning.

"Morning, Chelsea. Ready to stuff your face with rice candy?" Natalie greeted with a smile, moving into step right next to her friend as they traversed towards the docks.

"Am I ever," Chelsea responded, trying her best not to drool at the mere mention of rice candy. For a whole year, she had heard nothing but how wonderful the rice candy was. Whenever the mention of food came up within a conversation, someone always managed to sigh about how much they missed the rice candy, thus making Chelsea all the more jealous - but no more. No more would she have to live vicariously through anyone else, for she was only a boat ride away from those sweet, sticky, heavenly melt-in-your-mouth rice candies.

Or, so she thought.

One greeting to Kirk and a boat ride later, both Natalie and Chelsea stepped onto Meadow Island's dock. Before they even arrived at the island they could easily see all the vibrant colors and cheery faces which decorated the small island. Unlike Natalie, who immediately strolled off towards her brother and Julia like metal to a magnet, Chelsea took to wandering around the crowded isle. People were happily conversing with each other, laughing, smiling, eagerly waiting for the festival to begin – it all made the farmer smile with content. To be here, celebrating with all the townspeople, made her feel apart of small town as if she had lived there her whole life. Folks like Mirabelle, Felicia, Taro, Denny, and the Diner owner gave her a friendly wave and a warm greeting as she strolled by, making her feel all the more welcomed; however, there was one greeting that was not so warm.

Locking her eyes on the silver-haired male from earlier, a sly grin spread at the corner of Chelsea's lips. She immediately changed from aimlessly walking around to pursuing the socially-awkward Vaughn. Of course, he was standing a good few yards away from all of the little chattering groups. Once he caught wind of the fact that the overly chipper farmer was making a beeline for him, he quickly fixed his gaze at a nonexistent bird in the sky, hoping that if he did not acknowledge that she was there she would simply be disappointed and leave. This did not happen.

"Howdy partner," Chelsea amusedly greeted, stopping as uncomfortably close to Vaughn as she could. "Are you as excited to start the New Year as I am?"

It was obvious that Vaughn had begun to curse the New Year's festival for landing on a Tuesday, "Sure," he mumbled in agreement, now shifting his line of vision on the ground in front of him. Chelsea merely broadened her grin and kept her eyes locked on him, making him feel all the more uneasy. Oh, how she loved to tease him.

"What are your New Year's resolutions? Going to actually find a girlfriend this year?"

"I have to go," Vaughn blurted out in annoyance and sauntered off, not even waiting to hear whatever protest Chelsea had. Furrowing her eyebrows, she resisted the urge yell out "How rude!" But, after a moment, she ended up shrugging.

"Ah well – it was worth seeing him squirm." Now content with her ability to annoy Vaughn, Chelsea scanned the meadow once more. Her attention was caught by a blonde boy about her age, who had waved to her when her eyes had passed over in his direction. It appeared to be the rich boy with the incredibly long name who had a horse and lived on a yacht; or, to put it shortly, it was Will. Chelsea gave him a small smile as she began to lift up her hand to return the wave –

"She's gone! My little girl, she's gone!"

The loud, thunderous bellow caught everyone off guard, causing the easily scared to jump clear out of their skin. Chelsea composed herself just in time to whip her head around and see a distressed Gannon jump onto the dock, pushing poor Kirk clear into the water.

While a few people fished the boatman out of the water, the rest of townspeople gathered around the carpenter as his emotions got the best of him, "I can't find her! She's missing! She's gone!"

"Who's missing?" Taro managed to yell over all of the screaming and howling Gannon was doing. Chelsea began to push her way to the front of the crowd to get a better view.

Before anyone could react, Gannon, with his massive hand, grabbed the front of Taro's shirt and began shaking him in an almost violent manner, "_ELIZA! SHE'S GONE!_" He bellowed, fire and tears mingling in his eyes. People began to panic and scream for Gannon to let go, and it was not until Taro had whacked the mighty man on the head with his walking stick several times before he was finally dropped to the ground. Gannon, seemingly unperturbed by the fact that he was just beaten in the head with a walking stick, finally broke down and began to cry – a sight that no one thought they would ever live to see.

"Eliza...she's gone...I can't – I can't find her anywhere…she must've run away..why ain't I good enough?"

"Maybe she's been taken."

Everyone whipped their heads around to stare at Chelsea. Gannon even went from crying into his hands to shooting daggers out of his eyes at the rancher. The looks they gave her almost suggested that she had said something as horrible as admitting to have taken Eliza herself. Feeling the need to be anywhere but there, Chelsea began to slip back into the crowd, feeling smaller than even a Harvest Sprite.

"I'll go call the police, then…"

With that, Chelsea hurriedly made her way to the boat, forcing herself not to look over her shoulder when Gannon resumed his distraught whaling.

And that's when it all began.


End file.
